Is it silent because we’re not speaking? Or is it silent because we’re not listening?
Here in South Africa, we lost another beloved celebrity to cancer yesterday. The latest of a long string, we know about their struggles because they’re celebrities.
How many of us in the non-famous segment of life have been affected by cancer, heart disease, stroke, auto-immune disease, and debilitating chronic illness, either directly or through loved ones? Shouldn’t we be talking more about it? Not to dwell on the negativity, but to acknowledge the challenge, the journey, and the inevitable gifts that are there when we look deeply enough.
On a Facebook post yesterday, my fellow collaborator and friend Andreea Parc shared a link to an old time favourite, The Sound of Silence. First released by Simon & Garfunkel, the Internet is abuzz with different cover versions, my favourite being the Pentatonix version. Incidentally, it’s also the theme song for my quantum reality.
“Silence like a cancer grows.”
The underlying meaning, as explained by Art Garfunkel himself, is that “…this is a song about the inability of people to communicate with each other…What you see around you is people unable to love each other.”
In other words, our inability to communicate meaningfully.
Built on the foundation of meaningful, the topic “When dread disease strikes” has been added to the CoCoHub to encourage us, as entrepreneurs, to lead the discussions that would otherwise be frowned upon on business platforms.
Why do we exclude conversations that render us physically immobile and unable to attend to business as usual? How else can we create structures that alleviate the pressures of dealing with life-debilitating issues for ourselves and loved ones in the midst of being responsible for a business?
I’ve fleetingly shared my personal experience of having had cancer four times in my twenties, and being the primary caregiver for my mother after her stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis. I lost my father to heart disease, which I largely attribute to the stress of unsuccessfully trying to build a business. I know with certainty that many of the CoCoHub contributors have their own experience of dread disease.
It’s a very real, very sobering part of being human.
There is a particular line in the song that has caused me to pause and reflect, “silence like a cancer grows.” Interpreted as silence being as devastating as cancer if left unattended, I see another meaning to it. A complementary view alongside the original intention: It is also in our silence of cancer that cancer continues to grow.
My one message to society, which I will repeat as many times as opportunity allows, is that poverty, disease, and disharmony simply cannot thrive in high frequencies.
And bringing it back to the meaning of the song, that high frequency is love. It is the highest level of communication, and it doesn’t need words. Yes, it is necessary to speak up. And yes, we can fill that that uncomfortable silence with the frequency of love.
And absolutely yes! We are able to alleviate dread disease on the planet by resonating love.
